


Shining Light

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: YOI Pride Week [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Acephobia, F/M, Georgi Needs Hugs, Georgi's Spiteful Ex, Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 05:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15135641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: After running into Georgi's ex-girlfriend, Marina sits down to have a talk with Georgi.  It goes about like she expected, but Georgi is clearly surprised that this result was even possible.





	Shining Light

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Pride Week (shut up I KNOW I'm a week late but REASONS okay) Day 1: Revelations
> 
> Sequel to [Glow](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13740975).  
> For more on [Marina](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10778670/chapters/23942895) and [followup](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10778670/chapters/23967609).

Meeting Georgi had been nothing like Marina had expected it to be. Georgi was a total sweetheart, and despite his dramatics on the ice, he was a nice normal guy who was fun to hang out with off the ice. When she and Georgi started dating, Marina had no idea why so many girls had let him get away.

They’d started dating during Four Continents. At the beginning of May, Marina was grocery shopping when she ran into Georgi’s ex-girlfriend Anya. She had nothing to say to Anya, but Anya, for some reason, seemed to want to talk to her. “I hear you’re dating Georgi Popovich?”

“I am, and I really don’t care what you think of it. You had your chance, and you…”

Anya shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re expecting me to say, but I’m happy to see him glowing again. I just wanted to warn you that Georgi’s not perfect, that soon enough you’ll run into the dark side of dating him, and when you do, he’ll break up with you so that you don’t have to break up with him.”

“Huh? That doesn’t make any sense.” Georgi having a dark side, well, he probably did. No one was perfect. She’d never heard a single word alleging that Georgi was abusive or controlling or overly possessive, at least off the ice – she’d watched his program last year, where he was a Nice Guy. That wasn’t the real him, though.

“Georgi has some kind of issues with sex. If he’d told me, we could’ve figured out a way to deal with it, but the more hints I dropped the more he hid, until when I confronted him about it he decided that meant it was break-up time. All I wanted was him to talk to me, and he wouldn’t do that.”

Marina rolled her eyes. “I can’t imagine why, if you come in attacking him. I hope you’re happy with how that worked out for you.”

“I’m not. I’ve moved on, and I’m glad to see Georgi has too, and I told myself that if you made it this far I’d give you the warning in the hopes that you could figure out how to deal with him. That’s all I want, here, for you to be warned and have a chance to get out before you get any deeper or try to figure out how to deal with this with him.” Anya tossed her hair and walked off, leaving Marina to stare after her and think.

 

Georgi came over for dinner that night, which is why Marina had been grocery shopping in the first place. Once the table was cleared and the dishwasher loaded, Marina sat on the couch beside Georgi. “I ran into Anya today.”

“Oh? And you talked to her, I assume.” Georgi drew in on himself, supporting Anya's position.

“More like she talked to me. I’m still not sure what to make of the conversation, other than Anya’s not the most empathetic person I’ve ever run into, so I figure I should probably talk to you about it. After all, no matter what she says about wanting you to be happy, it’s gonna take a lot more to convince me she’s not a spiteful bitch after what she did to you in Shanghai.”

“She’s not always like that. I don’t know what her deal was that day, but… anyway. What did she say?”

“She said that you have some kind of issues with sex, and that you broke up with her so that she wouldn’t have to break up with you over that.”

“That’s… close enough, anyway,” Georgi said, curling in on himself even more.

Marina made a point of cuddling into Georgi’s shoulder – after all, he’d never minded that, so whatever his issues with sex were cuddling should be okay. “Georgi, are you asexual?”

“What, like bacteria? No, that’s ridiculous, humans are sexual and I’m human.”

“No, not like bacteria. Like…” Marina tried to figure out how to explain. If Georgi hadn’t heard of it before, that really strengthened the case. “You’re not sexually attracted to people. Instead of being heterosexual or bisexual or homosexual, you’re asexual because you don’t experience that attraction to anyone.”

“There’s a word for that?” Georgi’s mouth fell open and he stared at her. “I mean, besides the ones my parents used when I tried to explain that I felt that way when I was a teenager?”

Marina flinched and clung even more tightly to Georgi’s arm. “You don’t have to answer, but can I ask what words those were?”

“Broken. Wrong. Confused. Lying to myself. My father kicked me out the second I was eighteen, because he was that convinced I was gay and trying to hide it. Which, to be fair, if I were gay I _would_ have tried to hide it from him, he was an asshole, but…”

“Yes. There is a word for it, and it's a good word that thousands of people use for themselves, and you’re none of those things your parents said you were." Marina paused, and then added, "Well, maybe confused, since you didn’t have the words and couldn’t really explain it to your parents, but that’s okay. A lot of people are confused when it comes to this stuff.”

“I… I guess I am, then. I’m sorry, I…”

Marina put a finger to Georgi’s lips. “I know it’s likely caused problems for you in the past, but I’m not them. If you’ll promise me one thing, then I have no problem being in a relationship with you and without sex. Okay?”

“What’s the one thing you need me to promise you?” Georgi asked, hope finally creeping into his voice.

“That you’ll be honest with me when it comes to your boundaries. Even if you’re not sure what those are yet, you have them, and if you’ll promise to tell me when you’re not comfortable so I can stop and find something else to do, we can make this work.”

Georgi put an arm around Marina and softly kissed her temple. “Are you sure? I know that’s asking so much of you, you shouldn’t have to be celibate just because I’m…”

“I don’t have to be celibate," Marina interrupted. "There are other options. We could break up, I could ask for an open relationship… but at least for now, I’m willing to choose celibacy, because you’re everything I’ve ever wanted in a relationship and you being put off by sex isn’t a dealbreaker. Not for me. It may have been for other girlfriends, but that’s on them, not you. I promise I’ll tell you if I ever feel like I need something I’m not getting, so we can figure out if there’s a way for me to get that without pushing you to do something you don’t want to do or breaking up. How does that sound?”

Georgi's other arm came up around Marina, and he held her close, face buried in her hair. “Like you are too good to be true, and I will spend the rest of my life keeping you believing that I’m worthy of you if you’ll let me. I promise, if I’m not comfortable with something, I’ll tell you. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”


End file.
